return null
by SpookyDJ
Summary: You never wanted to destroy this world permanently. You only wanted to see what would happen. You give away your soul in order to restore the world, and the first human is allowed to roam the Kingdom of Monsters freely. You, however, find yourself in nothing but darkness, but you are not alone.


The previous run had been born of simple curiosity. That's all most runs were anymore. With nothing but time (and dust) on your hands, you'd go back over and over. What happens if you do this? What if you tried that instead? It was almost like a game at this point, figuring out everything the Underground had to offer.

This run was no different. You set out with a single question in mind. What would happen if you killed a monster? It'd been hard at first, bringing yourself to do it. But remembering that a reset would bring the frog back, that no one would remember and the dust would be off your hands, you were able to do it. And it was eeasier after that. With a new question to answer, you went on, until there was no one left. Every friend, enemy, and everything between, all turned to dust. You weren't empty, but you felt hollow. At the very least, when it was over you could reset. Bring them all back, be friends with them all again. Things would be back to the way it was before, and driven by curiosity, you would go on.

They say curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back. There was no satisfaction in this run, however. Just a want to see what would happen, and then a desire to end it.

At some point in the run, you began to lose control of yourself. You would do things without meaning to, your hands moving of their own accord. Curiosity over this too brought you all the way to run's end, where you finally learned why.

The demon, an echo of a soul that once was but was not long gone, introduced themself as Chara. They became stronger through your doing, and gained control of your actions. They moved your hands, directed you on, to this point. And now you were here. They were ready to destroy this world, end the loop of timelines, and move on to other worlds. To grow strong. But the knife sat in your hands. So they asked you to do it.

But this...wasn't what you'd wanted. Everything up to this point, yes, but not this. You wanted to go back. Turn back time, go through everything as many times as you wanted. You weren't done here yet. The question, however, had been largely unnecessary. You'd forgotten which one of you was in control. So they moved your hand, sliced the world with one clean cut, and it was gone. There was nothing left, and no going back.

All you wanted was to take everything you did back, to make it like it all never happened. Chara put it best; you thought you were above consequences.

They came back when they saw you linger at the remains of this world. They reminded you this was all your doing. You could have gone back at any time before this, or even never have done it all in the first place. Everything got to this point because of you, and there was no one else to blame. They were right of course. But you still wanted to go back. They scoffed at this, but offered a deal. You give up your soul, and they would bring it all back. Without thinking, without hesitating, you agreed.

You thought it would all go back to normal now, finally. Again, you thought you were above consequences.

Chara now had your soul. Your determination. Your power. As such, they now had the power to reset time, and go through the Underground. You did not. You had no idea how much you had given up, until now.

Now, you were no longer in any part of the Underground that you recognized. They moved on, but you stayed in that hollow, empty, darkness that had taken over in the world's absence. There was nothing but the sound of wind, and darkness. Dark, windy, yet darker.

It reminded you of someone. Someone who once was a friend. The last time you saw her, you were enemies, her putting her own life one the lie just to protect monsterkind from you. There was nothing funny about all of this, but you laughed anyway.

The darkness laughed back.

This startled you. You weren't expecting the nothingness to respond, but respond it did. As you wondered what was going on, the darkness in front of you took shape, and you realized you weren't as alone as you'd assumed.

In front of you was a monster, one you'd seen once before and had decided to call the Mystery Man. The Mystery Man was an odd looking monster. Drippy, not quite all there, and impossible to tell what he should have once looked like. He almost reminded you of the amalgamates in the Lab. Was he related somehow? It was only one of many questions you had.

"Greetings," he welcomed. The way he spoke was odd, a bit like a gurgle. It almost sounded like another language. Yet, you could still understand him clearly. "I am sorry if I startled you. I haven't had a new guest here in quite some time."

You asked the Mystery Man who he was.

"My name is Gaster," he responded. "You have heard of me. I was the previous Royal Scientist, before Dr. Alphys. I am responsible for the CORE, and other inventions. Lately, my only project has been to escape from here and go back where I came from. It has been a failure thus far."

You wanted to know how he ended up here.

"That is of no importance, especially to a child like you."

You tell him you have met him before, in a previous timeline.

"Oh, yes, I remember it quite clearly. That was my latest attempt to find a way back home, and the most successful. I was able appear in a remote room in Waterfall. But this wasn't without its drawbacks. I was unable to stay in Waterfall for long, and that was as far as I could go. I was unable to leave the room. It was an incredible strain on me as well. I do not plan to try again. It seems I am stuck here."

He must know about different timelines, then.

"You are correct. From here, I am able to see everything that happens in our kingdom. Here we can watch, but we cannot interfere. This space is unaffected by changes in time like loading and resetting, so I was able to witness events in the same way as you, without being able to initiate these changes in time itself. I have seen not only everything you have done with every reset, but everything that flower has done with each of its resets as well. I have seen you both not only at your best, but more recently, at your worst."

He's been watching you. Does he know who you are?

"Your name is Frisk. You are the eighth human to fall into Mt. Ebott and show up in the Ruins. You remind me much of the first human to arrive: Chara. For a long time they were the main company I had here. It appears that once they took your soul, you replaced them."

Is he content to simply sit here and watch?

"I do not believe I have a choice any longer. There is nothing more I can do about the situation. I am stuck here."

But Chara wasn't?

"Your arrival in the Underground, falling where their body rests, seemed to awaken them somehow. They followed you in your escapades throughout the kingdom, but seemed to be tied to your soul. Otherwise, they were stuck here, but yes, your determination allowed them to leave."

You want to know where 'here' is, anyway.

"Nowhere, yet everywhere at once."

You ask for an explanation.

"I do not wish to answer any further question from a child covered in the dust of my kind."

You decide that's fair. You're more than happy to sit in silence, and wait to see what happens next. It is not expected when the Mystery Man, Gaster, is the one to break the silence.

"Perhaps you now know how he feels. Or should I say, how he doesn't."

Now what is he talking about?

"The flower. The creature you so long ago you were afraid of, thought of as one of the worst beings allowed to exist. Perhaps your latest, er, 'run' as you call it has given you some insight."

You demand an explanation.

"He has explained much to you by now. When he first learned of his control over the timeline, he was nice and befriended everyone. He helped everyone as best as he could. Just like you. But he soon grew weary of this. He'd experienced everything there was to offer by being friendly, and longed for something new. He asked himself what would happen if he killed someone. He asked himself what would happen if he killed everyone. And he did both of these things. Just like you. With no attachment to his former friends, he never turned back. He continued to do awful things, just to experience something new."

You are silent.

"In the same way, you can also no longer turn back from your sins, as you have lost your soul. One human soul for the souls of all monsters. I'd say that's a fair trade, in order to bring back the lives you took. You have become worse than the creature you once feared; you have done similar things, but while you had a soul when you did them, he did not. But it goes beyond that," he went on. "Now, you and the flower are one and the same. Neither of you have a soul. You are things neither human nor monster. And now you, like him, can feel absolutely nothing."

You say nothing.

"If you were to go back through the timeline once more, you would experience the same thing. You would realize you cannot be happy, and you cannot love. You'd go to your old friends, befriend them again, try to get them to make you feel something, but it'd be impossible. You no longer care about them. They mean nothing to you. Nothing means anything. Perhaps, child, now you can see why it was so easy for the flower to do the things he did. Perhaps you can truly understand how losing his soul drove him to do the things he did. After all, it would drive you to do the same."

You are silent.

"Inevitably, going back would only lead to you killing them all all over again."

You aren't so sure. There was nothing satisfying or fulfilling about killing everyone you knew. You only did it because you wanted to see what would happen, and not even that had been gratifying. Instead, the whole thing just made you feel horribly hollow. You didn't think you'd ever want to do anything like that again.

"Don't forget, you now lack a soul. Befriending everyone all over again would only lead to the same feeling you described."

You didn't have a response to that. But luckily, you don't need one. The darkness shifted and formed once again. Rather than turning into a monster, this time the darkness created a window, allowing you and the Mystery Man to see the events of the Underground. It appeared that a human had just fallen into a bed of flowers in the Ruins. It was your body, but you knew better. It was Chara. All of this was no surprise to the Mystery Man; rather, he seemed to be expecting it. You, however, were not. You took a step back, trying to feel something that could have been surprised. However, you felt pulled towards this window. You took another step back.

"It seems that you are connected to the human soul, the same way Chara once was," observed the Mystery Man. "They once followed you through the kingdom countless times, and now I presume you shall do the same. I would wish you luck, but it would not be genuine. I shall see you again soon, child."

You felt yourself be pulled through the window. The next thing you knew, you were in the Ruins, following the human like some sort of ghost.

* * *

 **Definitely brings some inspiration from Aftertale. How about Sans fighting Sans right now, am I right? I'm totally rooting for Papyrus on this one. And I definitely don't trust Aftertale Frisk right now lmao**

 **Originally I had the idea to write the end of this run that Chara is starting, and I still intend to do that. But I decided this would be interesting, too. Just looking at Frisk after they give away their soul, what was going on before, how this effects them after. I never quite made the connection before, I was so busy looking at Chara getting the soul after the no mercy run, and taking over Frisk. Mostly because at that point, Frisk becomes irrelevant, I suppose. But while Chara has a soul, Frisk does not, and they've essentially...become something like Flowey, I suppose.**

 **I'm just a huge sucker for the parallels between Flowey and Frisk/the player, I suppose. And I just wanted to do something with Gaster as well, I guess. I dunno, take it, the sequel will be more fun.**


End file.
